Author: Henry Gao, SMU

Two years ago, I wrote about a special program called ‘Made in China’, produced by CNN in the wake of the tainted milk scandal. Last month, CNN started to air another ‘Made in China’ program. No it is not that the last program was so popular that they want to bring it back. Instead the new one is a thirty second commercial rumored to have been financed by China’s Ministry of Commerce (who later denied this) in an effort to promote Chinese products.

The key message of the advertisement, according to the voiceover at the end, is that, ‘When it says “Made in China”, it really means “Made in China, made with the world”.’ Read more…

Author: Henry Gao

Since its inception in 2005, the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (the ‘P4 Agreement’) has been hailed as a ‘high standard’ free trade agreement (FTA). However, there has never been any official explanation as to how the assessment of the Agreement is conducted. Now it’s exam time again, let’s see how the Agreement performs in ‘Free Trade 101’.

To be deemed as ‘high-standard’, an agreement must satisfy two requirements. Read more…